Yost: No evidence of 'scrubbing' in 2nd phase of schools audit

COLUMBUS -- No new instance of potential record "scrubbing" was found in the second interim report concerning the review of school attendance practices in Ohio, released today by Auditor of State Dave Yost.

This November, 184 school districts in Ohio have levies or bond issues on the ballot. The Auditor of State's office selected 81 school buildings in 47 districts to test for questionable student attendance practices in this second phase of the statewide audit.

The schools tested in the first phase of the audit were excluded from the second phase sample.

Of the 81 buildings tested in this phase: 53 buildings were considered "clean" with no issues identified to date; 20 buildings had records containing sporadic errors; and 8 buildings still have testing ongoing and are considered "indeterminate" at this time.

Yost's office also excluded an additional 26 districts from testing based on their low percentage of tested students "rolled-up" to the state for the 2010-2011 school year.

Auditor Yost's audit of attendance practices in Ohio's schools began when results of an internal audit at Columbus City Schools revealed irregular attendance and enrollment practices and similar allegations surfaced at Toledo Public Schools and Lockland City Schools.

The five school districts identified in the report were found to have improperly withdrawn students from their enrollment.

They are Campbell City School District (Mahoning County), Cleveland Municipal City School District (Cuyahoga County), Columbus City School District (Franklin County), Marion City School District (Marion County), and Toledo Public School District (Lucas County).